Thoughts from the roadrunner part one

I'm not really sure how to start this post.
How should I write it for easy readability/maximum entertainment?
I could give you a play-by-play, or I could talk about the highlights, hmm.
I've also been trying to recover from not only the milage, but the shock to my body, the hype, the overall event.
I didn't know it would take me so long to feel "normal".

I'll post the precursor. Here goes:




Background:
Waay back in January, my mom, her friend, and I signed up for a 1/2 marathon. The furthest I had physically RUN at one time up to that point was maybe 5 miles.
13 was going to be a huge step, especially for someone like me. I'm good with sprinting. Long distance running? It is taking me FOREVER to get into the swing of things.

After months of "training", the week of the event came.

The day before the race, I was nervous. So nervous.
I had never run over 10 miles at once. (Big mistake, I know; every site I visited on "how-to-half-marathon" suggests that you do a few 10-12 milers in the weeks leading up to the event. I, ummm, didn't. The most I did was 8 miles, and I can tell you it was a half-hearted 8 at that.)

I had no idea how my body would react to 13.1 miles.
So I stressed a bit, looked forward to the road trip, prayed, and packed.
I had friends wishing me well, and you have NO IDEA how much that helped. I do well with encouragement.

Then we were on the road. I took notes, because I was sure that the 24 hours would be a blur. I was right. Things are getting fuzzy.

FRIDAY:
Coffee!
We drove for hours to get to Charlottesville, Virginia.
Dad drove us through acres of beautiful farmland, albeit very "country-fied".  I played some bluegrass music (I was our honorary road trip DJ)
We introduced Mrs D (the lady travelling with us to run) to the wonder that is Bojangles. She's from Jersey, and though she has lived in the south for a few years, she had yet to try it. Yay Bojangles! She said she liked it. I heart bojangles. Especially the kid's meal sans biscuit. Yum.

...Bojangles, will you sponsor me? Look at the product placement!

Virginia had so many Dollar Generals, they could make an army. In one town, there was a dollar general, and a dollar general market. I know which one I'd be visiting. Another town had a dollar general on main street.
That is some kind of classy:

Then it was decided that we needed to play something more adventurous as we were crossing a huge bridge. Enya was popped in, and we felt like characters from Lord of the Rings. Smoky mountain/hills rose in the horizon, the sky was gray, the water was serene.

We also visited Farmville, and we felt like elites. I mean, most people just play farmville via facebook. I was actually there.

As we got closer to Charlottesville, the hills increased. I mean, they really increased. It was up-down, up-down. The picture kinda-sorta shows you:

When we noticed the drastic elevation change, I began to feel nervous. I remembered the map of the course {which provided a chart of the elevation change.} 
It had a total climb of 
925 feet (282 m)
and an elevation change of 
1851 feet (564 m) 
At this point, I felt a great sense of premonition. The butterflies in my stomach grew stronger. Actually seeing the hills made it seem even more real. My calves might not make it...


We drove into C-ville, and stopped by our hotel motel [what's the difference?] to drop off our bags. Charlottesville was a cute little city, everything was steeped in history. SO MANY HISTORIC SIGN MARKERS. 

{Reminds me of a joke Dad told: 

"how many Virginians does it take to screw in a lightbulb?" 

"three. One to replace the lightbulb and two to discuss the history of the previous lightbulb."}

When I packed, it was somewhere around 80 degrees in my hometown. It was sunny and beautiful. 
I guess subconsciously, I thought Charlottesville would be so pleasantly warm; not so. 


We were greeted by cold crisp air and a gray drizzly day. I had packed and dressed for summer. Whoops. Luckily I had packed a sweatshirt and was able to dig it out of my bag. 


Then it was on to pick up our packets! 


TO BE CONTINUED


(I'll continue this post later...I'm sorry for any errors at this time, it's late, and I was lazily writing off and on today. I realized I wanted to put SOMEthing up, be it lame or otherwise...)